A fish story and a travelogue all in one

Tipping the scales at 3-pounds, 11-ounces, the white crappie
landed May 2 by William "Bumbo" Lewis of Jackson was the heaviest one ever
registered in New Jersey.

But winning a state record wasn’t the creature’s only
accomplishment. Although nobody keeps track of such things, the fish is likely
to have more miles under its fins than any crappie in history. Its post-hooking
voyages began right away and have yet to end.

"The funniest part of the day was trying to get it weighed-in,"
said the 46-year-old angler. "I knew it was a big fish, and it was a personal
best for me." But to get in the record books, the fish needed to be weighed by a
state-approved scale, something Lewis found to be easier said than done after he
pulled the lunker from Mercer Lake.

"I drove to four different tackle shops in Mercer County and none
had a certified scale," he said. He finally found a store with a proper scale,
in Toms River, but not until about two hours after catching the crappie. Even
then, the fish’s out-of-water travels were far from over. After spending two
nights on ice, the plump crappie was again loaded into Lewis’ vehicle, this time
for a road trip north to the state Division of Fish and Wildlife’s fisheries lab
in Lebanon.

It was there that Fish and Wildlife fisheries biologist Shawn
Crouse confirmed the specimen was a white crappie, not a black crappie, and that
it was 13 ounces heavier than the prior record-holding fish, caught in 2005.
Lewis’ fish came in at 18 inches long and had a 14-and-three-quarter-inch girth,
said Fish and Wildlife. "To put that in perspective, this new state record is a
whopping 23 percent heavier than the previous record," noted the division in
announcing Lewis’ catch.

Lewis said he was having a great time fishing Mercer Lake on the
day he caught his prize-winner.

"That morning, I probably had caught a half-dozen crappie over two
pounds," he recalled. "It was probably my best crappie day ever. I’d never
caught that many big fish before, and when I got the three-eleven one, it just
looked so much bigger than the rest, I put it right in the live well."

He said the fish was so heavy he initially thought it was a bass
or a muskellunge or a carp. "He stayed deep for a while," Lewis said. "You get a
pretty good battle out of these fish, and when he came up he jumped just like a
largemouth. He cleared the water and shook his head."

The big crappie’s trip back to Lewis’ house after being inspected
by Crouse didn’t end its long-distance travels.

"The taxidermist I used has moved to Missouri," he said. "To add
to the travel story, on the following week I had the fish overnight-aired to
Missouri and that’s where the fish is now. After one, presumably final,
excursion — back to Jackson — the fish will finally come to rest. On Lewis’
living room wall.

"I have a lot of fish taxidermied," he said. "This one will put me
at the 20-fish mark in my living room."